Valparaiso (Storeship)
1861-1865
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(Storeship: tonnage 402 (gross register); length 117'6"; beam 27'6"; complement 36; armament none)
Valparaiso, a brig built at Baltimore, Md., in 1836, was one of a class of vessels popularly called “Baltimore Clippers” because of their reputation for speed and outstanding performance. The Navy purchased Valparaiso at New Bedford, Mass., on 22 November 1861.
The sailing vessel was originally intended to be sunk on 20 January 1862 at the entrance to Charleston, S.C., harbor as part of the second “Stone Fleet.” The first of such a group of vessels was deliberately sunk at Charleston on 20 December 1861, five days before the first Christmas of the war. That assemblage consisted of older vessels, mostly derelicts, filled with large boulders. They were intended to aid Northern efforts to blockade the Southern coastline in the early days of the Civil War when the Union Navy was still relatively small.
Instead of joining her sisters at the bottom of Charleston harbor as originally planned, however, Valparaiso was assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron of Flag Officer Samuel F. Du Pont and served as a storeship at Port Royal, S.C., where she remained for the duration of the Civil War.
After the collapse of the Confederacy, Valparaiso was sold at public auction at Bay Point, S.C., on 2 September 1865.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
27 June 2022
